India, Japan Team Up To Launch Robotics And Artificial Intelligence In Defense Sector

India and Japan will team up to launch robotics and artificial intelligence in the defense segment, the next phase of tactical collaboration between the two associates of Asia. A close consultant to Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and state minister for foreign affairs in Japan, Kentaro Sonoura, claimed to the media in an interview, “You must anticipate to see elevated bilateral collaboration between us to design UGV(unmanned ground vehicles) as well as robotics,” reported Times of India.

Sonoura further stated that Japan and India might be setting up a combined task force for marketable deals end of this month.

“The two PMs decided to roll out an operating group, which will operate on cooperation among nuclear firms. The aim of Japan is to begin this speedily, probably by this month end,” he claimed.

Yesterday, in India’s Union Budget for year 2018-19, the Indian government has already doubled its funds allocation for initiatives which includes Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

With an expansionist and aggressive China rising as a hurdle to both Japan and India, the two nations are more and more looking at the globe from a same lens. While the recent exhortation in global geopolitics, “Indo-Pacific,” may seem American, but is in fact Japanese basically, having been expressed Japanese PM in 2007.

In 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a five-year plan to achieve a “robotics revolution” which aimed at incorporating robots into various sectors of the economy and the society such as manufacturing, supply chains, construction and health care as well as expanding the robotics market to $20 billion by 2020.

Additionally, the collaboration between the two nation will also create more jobs in Artificial intelligence and Robotics sector. Notably, an Intel report has already predicted that 70% of Indian organizations will deploy artificial intelligence enabled solutions by end of 2019, which in other words also predicted that India will create more jobs for artificial intelligence and robotics professionals.

Japan’s domestic robotics industry is undoubtedly ranked top and is far ahead than its international competitors. Japanese companies such as Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries make up for 50% of the global market in the factory and industrial robotics space.

Indian robotic industry, on other hand is still in its nascent stage, with penetration of industrial robotics limited to large manufacturing concerns only. Although,Malcolm Frank, head of strategy of Cognizant, a world- leading professional services firm, said in an interview that India along with United States and China are way ahead of everyone else in the AI game and are currently the top three contenders for the numero uno throne.

In early 2017,a Chennai based startup had launched a afood serving robotand soon after aMall robotwas also launched by an another Indian startup.

Additionally, in February 2017, the then Indian defense minister announced that the government is planning to set up a Defence Innovation Fund to encourage new entrants in the aviation sector, especially startups.